meet the experts

We've divided our amazing cast into experts and subjects, although some of our experts also share personal stories, and many of our subjects have a lot of expertise in their own right

Hanne Blankis the author of the histories Virgin: The Untouched History and Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality, as well as several others books. A former Scholar of the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women at Towson University, she has taught at Brandeis University and Tufts College and is a popular guest lecturer on topics from the history of the hymen to sex tips for people of all sizes.

Heather Corinnais the executive director and founder of Scarleteen, the largest independent online resource for teen and young adult sexuality education. She is the director of the CONNECT sexual health outreach program which serves homeless and transient youth, on the editorial board of the American Journal of Sexuality Education; a contributing editor for Our Bodies, Ourselves; and a board member of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.

Dr. Henia Dakkakworks with United Nations Population Fund country offices dealing with emergency reproductive health issues during and post-crisis. Before joining the UN in 2004, Dr. Dakkak was the Director of Relief and Development programs with International Medical Corps (IMC) where she developed programming to improve quality of HIV/AIDS care throughout Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East and South East Asia.

Sady Doyleis a writer and award-winning social media activist and the founder of the anti-sexist blog Tiger Beatdown. She writes about feminism, culture and media at Tiger Beatdown and for Salon, In These Times, Bitch, Rookie, The Atlantic, The Guardian‘s Comment Is Free and The American Prospect. She has spoken at Harvard University’s “Rethinking Virginity” Conference, SXSW, and Netroots Nation.

Dr. Joycelyn Elderswas the sixteenth Surgeon General of the United States, the first African American and only the second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service. Long an outspoken advocate of public health, Elders was appointed Surgeon General by President Clinton in 1993. In 1994, Dr. Elders left office over her views on sex education, and in 1995 she returned to the University of Arkansas as a faculty researcher and professor at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Now retired, she remains very active–and outspoken–in public health education.

Shelby Knox is nationally known as the subject of the Sundance award-winning film The Education of Shelby Knox, a 2005 documentary chronicling her teen- age activism for comprehensive sex ed in her Southern Baptist community. She has appeared on Today, The Daily Show and Hardball. Shelby travels across the country as an itinerant feminist organizer, doing workshops and civil disobedience in the name of repro- ductive justice and sexual health. She is currently the Director of Women’s Rights Organizing at change.org.

Bronwen Pardes, is a graduate of Vassar College and New York University. She is the author of Doing It Right: Making Smart, Safe, and Satisfying Choices About Sex, which offers down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is answer to teens’ questions about sex. She has served as an expert for the websites TeenHealthFX.com and sexetc. com, which answer teens’ questions about sex, and she currently teaches human sexuality courses at several colleges in New York City.

Susan Schulzhas been at Hearst Magazines since 2000, currently serving as Editorial Brand Director of Cosmopolitan, where she oversees the website, CosmoBooks and a variety of other brand extensions. Prior to this she served as Editor-in-Chief of Cosmo- Girl! Magazine. Susan is active in community service with a 2005 “Do Something” Award from the National Alliance for Eating Disorder Awareness and a 2011 Galaxy Award from the New York Women’s Agenda.

Jessica Valenti, the founder of Feministing.com, is a writer, speaker, activist and the author of The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurt- ing Young Women. Her most recent book is Why Have Kids: A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness. She is also the author of Full Frontal Feminism, and co-editor of the anthology Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World With- out Rape, and she was the recipient of the 2011 Hillman Journalism Prize